The present invention relates to an underwire bra, and more particularly to a lightweight, substantially unpadded, comfortable, push-in underwire bra.
A wide variety of underwire bras is well-known in the bra art. The use of an underwire bra, as opposed to a non-underwire bra, ensures that a hypermammiferous woman will receive adequate breast support. The underwire conforms and clings to the skin of the wearer to preclude "lifting" of the bottom or band of the bra (which passes about the torso of the wearer), thereby ensuring that a bottom portion of the wearer's breast cannot fall between the wearer and the band. The underwire additionally helps to support the breast within the cup, thereby relieving some of the weight which is otherwise by borne by the shoulder straps of the bra and hence the shoulders of the wearer.
Typically, an underwire is generally U-shaped in configuration, although the length of the legs of the U may vary. As the conventional function of the underwire is to push the breast upwardly and thereby provide cleavage between the breasts, the underwire typically extends about the base of the breast with the bight of the U at the bottom of the base, a lateral or an outer leg of the U extending substantially towards the top of the cup, and a medial or inner leg of the U extending at least an appreciable length (and typically a substantial length) towards the top of the cup. As a result, the underwire bra is typically of a "push-up" type which attempts to raise the wearer's breast in a more or less vertical direction. As the underwire bra is typically especially designed for women of substantial breast proportions, it is typically substantially unpadded, although in various instances it may be provided with an either integral or detachable pad adjacent the bottom of the cup in order to assist in the push-up function and thereby achieve additional cleavage.
Regardless of whether the wearer is of slight or substantial breast proportions, the push-up effect is less than satisfactory in practice due to the "double breast" effect. With a push-up bra, each breast appears to be formed of two vertically aligned separate breasts, one which is pushed up within the cup by the padding and one which is a bunching of skin above the top of the bra, such bunching resembling a slight separately formed auxiliary breast. Accordingly, the desired cleavage is achieved by the push-up bra only by somewhat sacrificing the aesthetics.
The cups of the typical underwire bra are connected by a gore, a relatively high small strip of material connecting the bras cups at the bottom of the cups and for some appreciable distance thereabove. While the gore is typically flexible, it still limits independent movement of the cups relative to to one another and thereby decreases the comfort of the bra.
Despite the wide variety of underwire bras in the prior art, the need remains for such a bra which is lightweight, substantially unpadded, comfortable and designed to provide a push-in effect which accentuates cleavage.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a lightweight, substantially unpadded, comfortable, push-in underwire bra which provides deeply plunging cleavage while enabling substantial independent motion of the cups (and hence the wearer's breasts) relative to one another.